This, the debut full -length from accomplished Oakland slam poet and former 10BASS T member Carlos Mena, presents itself as a spiritual journey stepping to a hip-hop beat. Smooth doesn't even begin to describe Mena's sound: his drums and rhythms are so organic they belong on the shelves of your local health food store. Any Good? Very good. Heavy Latin and African influenced, Mena's spoken-style lyrics take on grand themes such as love, life, and our place in time, throwing a positive spin on every verse. Remember Speech from Arrested Development? He's on board for " Buscando Luz." Overall Hip-Hop Meditations is a thoroughly engaging solo effort.
Tired of the glitz and the glam and all the crap rappers? Check out this unsung Bay Area savior, who makes beautiful music for the conscious heads. "Walking in the Light" could be one of the hottest songs of the year and needs to be released on 12"
Educated wordplay from Bay Area
: Although countless heads complain about the dumbing down of rap music, few do anything about it, and even more once-“conscious” MCs are switching styles in hopes of commercial acceptance. Not this cat. Oakland's Carlos Mena delivers a stirring, complex and impossible-to-categorize album that oozes intelligence, spirituality and funk. Fusing exotic percussion with lush instrumentation and knocking beats, he raps, sings and speaks his way through 16 self-produced tracks. Deep but not preachy, this record is the ideal antidote to the mainstream's formulaic approach.
Orishas Watchin' Your Back
African-based deities figure big in the musings of one local hip-hopper.
By Eric K. Arnold
With Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" leading a spiritual revival on the airwaves and SoundScan charts -- heard the remix featuring the once-jiggy, now born-again Mase yet? -- it's time to discuss spirituality in hip-hop and urban culture. Specifically, the orishas, and what they mean to you.
Your spirit guides for this brief journey through the realms of mythology, ritual tradition, and the universal subconscious are Carlos "Solrac" Mena, the man behind the recent orisha-affirming album Hip-Hop Meditations, and Luisah Teish, Oakland-based teacher, lecturer, and priestess of Osun, the "elegant goddess of love, wealth, and beauty." read the rest of the story here
Carlos Mena's Hip-Hop Meditations takes the hip-hop generation on an inward journey.
By Jeff Chang
Largely done in a six-month immersion period, Hip-Hop Meditations throws sacred, trance-inducing batá rhythms into bold new settings, like the global fusion-minded hip-hop of Wyclef Jean's The Carnival and Common's Like Water for Chocolate, and the big-eared polyculturalism of bands like Ozomatli and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Hip-Hop Meditations best compares with the Last Poets' 1972 classic Chastisement, a word-drunk celebration of jazz-influenced __expression and a globalized blackness, and an attempt to merge the street with the big ideas and rhythms of the Afro-Latin Diaspora."
(full story here)
by John BookIt’s about going through each phase in order to come full circle with the realization of where the music came from, where it is, and where it should be headed. Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. 360 degrees. This is easily one of the most intelligent hip-hop albums I’ve heard in awhile.
(full review here)MAGAZINE
by Keegan
Hip-hop is not dead—it may be barely breathing, but it is not dead, and once in a while an album comes around with the potential to enlighten the non-believers. ...It’s hearing music like this that makes me proud to be a b-boy. (full review here)